Europe will not receive Russian gas through Ukraine: transit agreement will not be extended

Ukraine will not extend the gas transit agreement with Russia after its expiration at the end of 2024. After all, Ukraine's strategic goal is to deprive Russia of revenues from the sale of hydrocarbons, which it then uses to wage war on Ukraine itself.

This was announced by Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal during a joint press conference with Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico. He called on all European countries to completely abandon oil and gas from Russia.

"The strategic goal of Ukraine is to impose sanctions on the Russian gas molecule, to deprive the Kremlin of profits from the sale of hydrocarbons, which the aggressor uses to finance the war. We understand the acute dependence of some countries, including Slovakia, on this resource. But we are counting on the gradual diversification of supplies," the head of the Ukrainian government said.

The EU is ready to stop gas transit through Ukraine

At the same time, according to Bloomberg, the termination of Russian gas transit through Ukraine will not affect European consumers. Although some EU countries (such as Austria and Slovakia) are still dependent on Russian gas supplies, the end of the contract for its transit through Ukraine is unlikely to affect the strengthening European market.

"A certain volume will leave the market, but the market knows this and it is included in the price. Our joint position is quite strong before the winter," said Michael Lewis, CEO of Uniper SE, once Germany's largest importer of Russian gas.

For his part, Egbert Legge, CEO of the German energy company Securing Energy For Europe, admitted that the volumes of gas coming through the pipeline to Ukraine could be replaced. However, "in the event of a very cold winter, the system may experience a certain deficit."

However, Europe's readiness to do without supplies from Russia is evidenced by the fact that, according to the Gas Infrastructure Europe energy group, Germany's gas storage facilities are already almost 96% full. This was done due to stable supplies from Norway and increased imports of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States.

As reported by OBOZ.UA, for her part, European Commissioner for Energy Kadri Simson explained that the completion of the agreement on the transit of Russian gas through Ukraine will put an end to decades of European dependence on Russian fossil fuels. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russian gas imports have already dropped from 150 to 50 billion cubic meters.

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